scatmanjack

Voyager Crown Lounge is the Old Cigar Club on Deck 5 Forward by the Star Theater. It is really small. Suite Lounge is up on Deck 14 Next to High Notes Bar/Lounge.

My experience has been that Pickleball is enjoyable on Oasis Class ships because the Sports Court has plexiglass barrier that stops the wind. On Freedom and Voyager Class ships, the Sports Court has a net as a barrier and the wind makes playing Pickleball next to impossible.

For those interested, a quick summary of my experience from Allure 06/2023 Try Drive is booked in Cruise Planner as a Shore Excursion. I think it was priced at $34. Originally only single spot was available. I was able to add a second person once onboard at the Dive Shop. My session was held on Day 3 at 7am in Sports Pool by the Dive Shop. The PADI course was being held at same time and they obviously had started their class well before our scheduled arrival. My daughter and I were given tanks and other gear (PADI class had wetsuits but we didn't). We were able to use our own masks (presciption lenses as well as comfort factor), Simple instructions for rise and fall with the buoyancy vest were provided and in we jumped. Instructor basically told us to go to other end of pool while he did PADI course with about 7 other people... We could have stayed as long as we wanted but we both were done after about 30m. Seeing the bottom of the pool was somewhat enlightening. The amount of debris, hair, and other junk floating around affirmed my history of not spending much time in cruise pools... Glad we did it. The price was fair. Good experience to learn if you want to commit to a PADI course and go all-in... We snorkel often but had never worked with a tank system before...

I did this on Allure last month and it was held in one of the pools and NOT the AquaTheater...

Was on Allure two weeks ago and Sabor was a ghost town for lunch and dinner... Shouldn't be hard to walk up and get a table... Guess you could be looking at potential discount by pre-purchasing it in the cruise planner vs. on-board rate...

Texas Alcoholic Beverage Commission used to have a table set up at old Royal Caribbean Terminal asking for voluntary payment of Duty for any Alcohol and Tobacco purchases from your sailing. I have not seen this table set up at the new Pier 10 RC Terminal on my last two sailings nor have I sailed any other cruise lines from Texas recently. Did the TABC finally give up on this?

lots of time (30m each way?) driving to North Side of Island... lots of time waiting at 'beach' for snorkeling time/boat... Don't expect an actual beach. There is sand and a wall down to the water. Concrete steps leading a bed of seaweed... 2 bathrooms/changing rooms for hundreds of people... Food was a fried dough with meat... The snorkeling is actually only two stops. One location had two viewing areas (star fish and a reef, second was shipwreck) This was booked through RC and is Christopher Tour

Every ship that we've been on with Pickleball has been too windy to have any sort of enjoyment. The ball is too light and get carried away by breezes on the Sports court. Perhaps if they had is on port days it would not be as bad, but sea days are just a waste if you try to play...

We saw some everyday from our balcony sailing from Galveston to Costa Maya and Cozumel last week...

Got a bottle of Vigne Dei Conti Espumoso Vino Spumante Extra Dry last week (03/13/2023) on Adventure for booking a 4 night in 2024... Also won another bottle at Shore Excursion/Travel Trivia... (gave it away to young couple...)

We were there on 06/10/22. The storm the prior week changed currents and brought some sargassum onto the West Side of the island. Nachi staff showed photos from 05/30 week and it was bad. Normal currents and winds had returned by our visit. There was some normal seaweed floating around and on the ocean floor but not the floating sargassum. Water was cloudy so snorkeling from shore was not worth effort. Food and Service were amazing... Our first visit and we will return.